Grafting Sugar on Red

[Acer]

Got quite a surprise today, tested one of my field reds with the new hannah.


drum roll........


3% !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[lpakiz]

Frank,
You definitely want the lower scale--sap will seldom get over 5% and usually 2-3%. The larger scale will be very hard to read accurately...
Better yet is 0 to 10%, providing even more scale separation.

[DrTimPerkins]

Refractometer question - I found one that is described as "45-82% ATC New Handheld Brix Refractometer" that has an operating range of room temp +/- 10 degrees C.

I found another one that is 0-18%, same temp range.

Would be better if the temperature compensation range was a bit larger, but these would work within their limits.

First would be suitable for syrup (although you always need to verify with a hydrometer to be sure). Second would be good for sap.

Close the cover of the refractometer immediately after the drop is put on the sample surface. This will equilibrate the temperature faster and otherwise even a small amount of evaporation would skew the sample towards higher sugar content.

[DrTimPerkins]

Got quite a surprise today, tested one of my field reds with the new hannah.

Not bad for a red maple. Guess you'll have to rethink tapping those reds.

Which model of Hannah are you using? If it has a wide operating range, it tends to be a bit less accurate at the extremes, so may not be the best for telling tree apart based upon sap sugar content. For example....a tree that reads 2.1 and another that read 2.2 are probably not really different with a unit with a wide Brix range. Better to use something with a narrow range for that. Usually instruments of this sort are rated something like +/- 2% full-scale. So if you have a 0-20 Brix instrument, your error is in the range of 0.4 Brix. But if you have a 0-80 Brix instrument with +/- 2% FS, your error could be 1.6 Brix. Makes a HUGE difference when you're buying sap.....in that case...pull out the sap hydrometer or a sap refractometer and you'll be much happier.

[Acer]

Tim,
Its the hi96801 0-80brix temperature compensated. reads distilled water as 0brix and last years syrup as 66.5brix.
That red is bushed top to bottom, was given full sun around 1996.

Dean

[needmoremaples]

How did this work out?

[Andy VT]

There is a very large maple in my neighborhood that I'm convinced is a red grafted onto sugar or vice versa. I've been tapping it and it produces well though I've never measured sugar content. I know overall I'm averaging near 40:1 across all the trees I tap, which are all full-crown full-sun city yard trees. The homeowner was convinced it was a sugar maple and had good reason to think so. The fall foliage is pretty orange in color and contrasts strongly with a next door red maple. The leaves are sugar maple shape. But the bark is more red maple and the spring flowers are red. There was another tree in the neighborhood, now gone, with these characteristics as well. I saved some leaves from it for further "study" but may never get around to it!